Christie calls for GOP rebranding

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday in an interview with POLITICO outlined a path for the GOP to rebrand as the party keeping "our eye on the cash register,” while also praising some Democrats for taking the right approach to tackling major issues like education.

Christie, a darling of conservatives after staring down Democrats over the budget and tax cuts, demonstrated his own distinct brand of conservatism over a breakfast interview. Without naming names, the seven-year former federal prosecutor took a shot at politicians who simply resort to “demagoguery” on controversial - and complex - topics such as illegal immigration.

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The sit-down came hours after the newly-minted governor returned home from passing the Garden State’s budget, a plan that mostly reflected what he’d spent months pushing for, but one that also cost him some of his popularity in the polls.

Christie has generally avoided talking about national issues in his first six months in office. But he urged President Barack Obama to take the lead on immigration reform, and said he should keep speaking out on teachers union reforms, an issue that has made the New Jersey governor a controversial figure as he’s aggressively fought for changes in his home state.

But he also took positions more closely aligned with some centrist Democrats on issues such as immigration – an issue he said falls victim to “demagoguery” too easily and one that’s a national problem.

Asked over a breakfast of eggs with cream cheese, scallion and whole wheat toast– but no coffee, which he steers clear of – what he thought Republicans should run on, Christie suggested charting a course of fiscal conservatism.

“They should be talking about treating people like adults and telling them the truth: we’re in huge trouble,” he said. “And it’s going to mean cutting back on a lot of things that folks either have become used to or in a perfect world would like to have.”

He added, “Republicans have to rebrand themselves credibly with the candidates they run, and what they espouse, as the person who will keep an eye on the cash register, who will rein in the spending and the debt.”

Christie said that is the path he is pursuing in New Jersey, which is “really a blue state, so I don’t understand why it wouldn’t appeal all across the country. I mean, nobody’s asking my advice, but if they did, that’s what I would say to them.”

Christie’s budget cleared after a legislative battle in which he won the bare minimum of Democratic votes he needed to get it through. Now, he’s calling back the legislature to focus on his 2.5 percent property tax cap proposal, which he’d like to see put on the ballot this fall – a move that requires lawmakers’ approval.